


SI Internship Team

by rebelmeg



Series: Rebelmeg's Tony Stark Bingo 2018 [8]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Fluff and Humor, Gen, Iron Dad and his Potato Gun Son, Iron Dad and his Science Sons - Freeform, Iron Dad and his Spider Son, MIT bros, Parent Tony Stark, Tony Stark Has A Heart, background pepperony, sorta - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-25
Updated: 2018-11-25
Packaged: 2019-08-29 04:10:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16736841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebelmeg/pseuds/rebelmeg
Summary: Tony's got two good kids spinning great ideas in his lab on a regular basis.  It was inevitable that he took their research and efforts a step further.COME SEE THE BEAUTIFULMOODBOARDMADE BY PERDIX!





	SI Internship Team

**Author's Note:**

  * For [roseandthorns28](https://archiveofourown.org/users/roseandthorns28/gifts).



> This was written for my TSB Square A1: Harley Keener! I was chatting with my delightful friend [roseandthorns28](https://archiveofourown.org/users/roseandthorns28/pseuds/roseandthorns28)  
> , like forever ago, and my conversation with her about Peter and Harley inventing something in Tony's lab is what spawned this fic!
> 
> Many thanks to [12AngelofDarkness21](https://archiveofourown.org/users/12AngelOfDarkness21/pseuds/12AngelOfDarkness21) and [LadyMaya](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyMaya/pseuds/LadyMaya) for being betas for me!
> 
> (TSB Roundup info in the end notes.)

“Aw, damn it!”

Tony lightly thumped Peter’s head as he passed by, a newly-processed machine part in his hands. “I heard that, that’s a dollar in the swear jar.”

Harley snorted from the other side of the table. “The only reason you have a swear jar is because you kept swearing in front of us minors. I don’t think we should have to pay.”

“Hey, if I have to follow the rules so do you, kid. Why you swearing, Pete? What’s up?”

Peter waved his phone in the air as he scowled. “My phone fell out of my pocket at school, and it landed in the toilet. I dried it off as best I could, but it’s really glitchy now.”

Harley made a face. “You cleaned it, right?”

Peter rolled his eyes and scoffed. “Of course I did.”

“Here, toss it over.” Tony held his arm up and caught the phone Peter threw over, turning the device over in his hands. He pried off the back and looked it over. “Yeah, it’s still got damp spots. You better keep it turned off until it dries completely, but it probably won’t fix the glitches. You need a new one, kid.” He tossed the phone back and snapped a cleaning wipe free of a nearby container for his hands.

Peter winced as he caught the phone. “Yeah. Aunt May’s not gonna like that. This one's only a year old.”

“Let me know what kind you get,” Harley piped up, “I need a new one too. I’m not sure which one I want.”

He and Peter resumed what they were doing, a mix of homework and some science experiments Tony was letting them use his workshop for. They didn’t notice Tony watching them, an idea obviously forming in his head.

 

“Hey, take these with you.”

Peter and Harley took the black plastic SI bags Tony held out to them, looking at the bags in bemusement. “What are they?”

“Very expensive pencil sharpeners.” Tony replied sarcastically. “Open ‘em up and see.”

Harley was already opening his, and his eyes went huge as he saw what was inside. “Whoa, Tony! Are these the new Starkphones?!” He looked like a kid on Christmas morning.

Peter’s eyes went equally wide, and he looked at the four boxes in his bag and the three in Harley’s. “Are… are you serious, Mr. Stark?”

“As a heart attack. And I can make that joke now, Pepper said it's been long enough.”

“What… what are they for?”

“Um, you, kid, what did you think?”

Peter just kind of held up the four boxes, looking perplexed.

Tony smiled a little bit, and tapped each box. “You. May. Ned. MJ. Or, well, it’s optional, really, you can give them to whoever you want, but I figured those were the most likely ones.”

“For my mom and sister?” Harley asked, holding up his three boxes with a grin, and Tony nodded.

“Yep. Spoils for everyone. They’re already activated, you can port in your old numbers if you want and get them set up on your phone service accounts.”

Peter looked slightly overwhelmed, as if he was all too keenly aware that he was holding several thousand dollars’ worth of top-of-the-line electronics. “Are you sure? This is… it’s a lot, Mr. Stark.”

“Yes, I’m sure. Can’t have you without a decent phone. Besides, this way I can have Friday spy on both of you.”

Both of the teens shot him unamused looks, and he laughed.

“Yeah, I know, you’d figure it out in a heartbeat and hack the phones to prove it. No interfering AI, I swear. Standard phone packages, no extra bells and whistles even though you’re my favorites.”

Both boys flushed a little bit at that, then thanked Tony profusely and left, clutching their bags of phones protectively.

“I’m quite a bit fond, too.” Friday commented as the two disappeared, and Tony nodded.

“They’re good kids.”

\--------------------------------

“Are you serious?!”

Peter grinned at the look on Ned’s face as he turned the box over in his hands. “As a heart attack.”

“This is so cool! He gave you four of them?”

“Yep! One for me, you, Aunt May, and… an extra one.”

Ned looked at him knowingly, smirking. “You’re gonna give it to MJ.”

“I might! I might not. I don’t even know if she likes Starkphones.”

“Dude, the only people that don’t like Starkphones are the people that work at Apple.”

Peter couldn’t help but laugh at that as he backed towards the door. “Yeah, you’re probably right. I gotta go, I just wanted to drop that off. I wanna catch May before she leaves for work, the look on her face is gonna be awesome.”

“Take a video with your fancy new phone and send it to Mr. Stark!”

“That’s a good idea!” The two exchanged their secret handshake at the door and Peter took off, cradling the bag with the other three phones to his chest as he went. This was a really good day.

\-------------------------

Tony answered the Facetime call as soon as it came in, hiding a smile. “Kid, you’ve had that phone for like an hour, don’t tell me you’re already so bored of it you’re Facetiming me to complain.”

Harley looked ready to bounce off the walls, he was so excited. “Tony, this thing is so cool! Like… I can’t even begin to explain!”

“So it’s working out for you? User friendly and all that?”

“It’s amazing! And there’s so much space on it, like… I could put all my music and stuff on there three times!”

“Well, your taste in music is deplorable, but I can have some AC/DC and Black Sabbath beamed over if you’d like.”

“Just because you’re too old to appreciate the new stuff.” Harley rolled his eyes and Tony laughed.

“Glad you like it, kid. Your mom and sister like theirs?”

“My mom’s still at work, but Bridget loves hers. The case is her favorite part, she made it this terrible bright pink color.”

“I wouldn’t expect any less.”

“You’re really good at this stuff, Tony." Harley's expression was sincere as he smiled. "Best mechanic ever.”

Tony wasn’t quite able to hold back his own smile, but he didn’t mind. “Thanks, kid. Go download your music.”

“Good music.”

“Agree to disagree.”

“Later, Tony.”

Ten minutes later a message came in, and Tony nearly laughed himself silly at the video Peter sent him of May Parker gaping like a fish at her new phone. Peter tacked on a text message, _Once she recovers, I think she’ll like it._

 _You’re kind of a punk, Parker._ Tony texted back with a grin.

\----------------------------------

“The Sciencelings are here, armed with fancy new phones.” Tony grinned as the two of them came into the lab the next day after school.

“Still the coolest phone ever.” Harley waved his in the air.

“Good to hear. How’s yours, Pete?”

“Great, except I’m terrified I’m gonna drop my awesome new phone in the toilet. I made Ned hold it for me outside the bathroom."

Tony snorted. “Don’t get all uptight about it, it’ll just make it more likely to happen. Besides, it’s got waterproof sealing, long as you don’t go diving with it or leave the back panel cracked open, it should be fine.”

Harley sighed wistfully as Peter frantically checked to make sure the back panel was on correctly. “I wish all phones and stuff had that. Or that there was something like…” He waved his hands in the air, trying to articulate what he was thinking, “A pouch or whatever that would help dry it out if you can’t go home and stick it in rice.”

Peter nodded, his eyes lighting up with that familiar science gleam. “Yeah, something you could keep in your locker or backpack.”

“It would have to be light, but super absorbent.”

Tony smiled to himself as the two of them spiraled into an inventing vortex, talking over each other and pitching out ideas and theories almost faster than he could track. It was the best kind of thing to see. 

“What if the phone had a compartment, _on the inside_ , for earbuds!”

Harley’s eyes went wide. “That would be so cool! They have to have the wires attached, though, not like those stupid ones that are just the earbuds.”

“Yeah, of course, those are just… so dumb, I’d lose those so fast.”

“O. M. G. What if they had _nanotech_ wires!”

Peter nearly vibrated out of his seat. “That would be _perfect!_ ”

Tony reined them back in from that one. “Guys, come on, nanotech headphone cables would be too expensive for like 95% of people.”

Peter frowned, considering it. “Yeah, you’re right.”

Harley’s eyes lit with another idea. “What if it was just a nano coating on the wires? The wires themselves aren’t made of nanoparticles, but they have a film that keeps them from tangling.”

“That would cut down on cost, right Mr. Stark?”

“Yep. A more affordable ballpark, anyway.”

The two kept spinning ideas, and Tony listened as he added a new project to his list, adding a list of potential materials with a note to see if there was anything more absorbent than what the boys had come up with. He also had an idea niggling at the back of his head, and he made a note of that too. He grinned when Peter nearly jumped out of his chair with a new idea.

“What if the whole _case_ was nanotech!”

“You’re running off into unaffordable fantasy land again, come back.”

Spider Kid’s face fell. “Oh yeah.”

Harley plunked his chin down on his hand. “Wow, keeping inside a budget sucks, even if you’ve got money.”

Tony had to laugh at that. “That it does, kid. That it does. Here,” He tossed over a set of car keys. “Thursday, practice day. You’re up first this week.”

Harley grinned like a demon as he caught the keys and shot to the back of the shop where Tony’s garage was, Peter on his heels. Tony followed, finishing up his cold mug of coffee on his way and dropping it off with Dum-E.

“Friday, if I don’t return, tell my wife I love her.”

Friday’s voice was thick with false gravity. “I’ll communicate your last words diligently, boss.”

“Make sure my will is updated.”

“As I do every Thursday.”

"Am I in the will, Tony?"

“Not if you kill me. The driving track clear, Fri?”

“And the cones are up. Focus on street driving, left and right turns, and merging.”

“Perfect, give yourself a raise.”

Harley was already in the front seat of the Audi convertible, an older model that Tony bought specifically for the boys to beat up, bouncing in the seat slightly.

“Come on, come on, come on!”

“Take a breath, young man, or I’ll set you a very sad speed limit.”

 

All three of them were wind-blown and slightly wild-eyed as Peter pulled them back into the garage an hour and a half later.

“I lose at least a year off my life every time I get into a car with you two.”

“Hey, I only hit four cones this time!” Harley protested from the back seat, having switched with Peter halfway through their practice time.

“Yes, Harley, _at once_! Four cones _at the same time!_ ”

“I only hit one!” Peter crowed excitedly, although he smothered a giggle when Tony turned a flat look at him.

“You _obliterated_ one. I fear for the safety of humankind when you two have completed your hours and are set loose on the road.”

“Maybe we’d do better on actual roads and not the driving track.” Harley suggested, clearly eager for something a little riskier than cones and an empty driving track.

“Over my dead and decaying body, dude.”

Rhodey strode into the room, raising his eyebrows at Tony. “You better not be dying again.”

Tony grinned at him. “Hey, it’s my MIT bro. And no, not dying today.”

Harley and Peter both waved. 

“Hey Uncle Rhodey!”

“Hi Colonel Rhodes!”

Rhodey reached Harley first and gave him a fistbump, then moved to Tony’s other Science Son. “Come on Peter, you can call me Rhodey. Or Uncle Rhodey, that’s great too. Took Harley all of fifteen minutes to start using it.”

Peter squinted a little bit, thinking it over. “Colonel Rhodey?”

Rhodey grinned and gave the kid a fistbump. “If that makes you feel better about it.”

Peter just grinned.

“What brings you here to my never-humble abode, honey bear?” Tony asked, briefly wondering if he’d forgotten something.

“Dropping some stuff off, figured I’d see what the Science Squad is up to. Anything good?”

“Tell him about your phone ideas, guys,” Tony encouraged as he sat down at his worktable, flicking his fingers across the monitors to pull up the schematics he had been working on as the boys brainstormed.

“Oh, cool, you’ve been writing it all down!?” Peter gushed, moving towards the holoscreen to look at it.

“That looks pretty rad!” Harley pulled up his own screen and manipulated the images, twisting them in all directions and reading the notes for each part.

Rhodey was reading the description for the “Liquid Absorbent Phone Saver: Phase One” over Harley’s head. “For when you drop your phone in the toilet or something?”

A faint blush crept up Peter’s neck. “Or something.”

“You gonna put those out with the new phones, Tony?” Rhodey asked, silently fighting with Harley as they both tried to manipulate the image at the same time.

“Maybe. We’ve got two weeks, it might be doable.”

Something clearly occurred to Peter and his eyes met Tony’s through the holoscreen glass. “Are the new phones you gave to me and Harley not even on the market yet, Mr. Stark?”

“Not yet. I had ten testers made to run for bugs, you guys are handling that for me.”

Their eyes bugged out of their heads. “They aren’t even out yet?” Harley blurted, pulling his phone out of his pocket and looking down at it with renewed awe.

“Nope. Exclusive release for bug-testing. Which is why I keep asking, so seriously, if you find anything that’s not working for you, let me know. Not you, Rhodey, you’re absolutely useless in this scenario, how dare you.”

Rhodey just smirked and waggled his old phone at Tony with twinkling eyes, taunting him.

Harley was still gobsmacked. “Ten… you gave us seven of the _brand new_ , not-even-released-to-the-public-yet Starkphones?”

“Sure did. I’ve got Friday running another one for me, Bruce and Happy have the other two.”

“Not Colonel Rhodey or Mrs. Stark?” Peter blurted out before thinking about it.

Tony grinned at the kid’s blush and shook his head. “Nah, Pepper’s got her own specially made phone. It can flip you off, sing you the song of your choice, and tell you how to get to Atlantis if you want. The average human doesn’t need quite that amount of customization. And I had to basically destroy Rhodey’s old monstrosity in order to get him to upgrade to that one, I don’t think that’ll work this time around.”

Rhodey nodded. “You’re right, I’m never letting you borrow my phone again.”

The boys spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening performing every test they could think of on the new phones, even checking on the internet for common problems or user complaints with other models and brands to make sure they covered all their bases. (Tony screamed a little bit when they both dropped their phones, on purpose, straight onto the concrete floor, but the impact-resistant case and crack-resistant glass held up beautifully so it was all fine.)

“It’s nice, having them here. Isn’t it?” Rhodey commented when Peter and Harley were packing up to head home. “It seems to be good for all of you.”

Tony smiled, looking at the teenagers fondly. “Hoping so. They’re brilliant kids. They’ve both got that engineering streak in them, Harley is a little more mechanically inclined, and Peter leans more toward chemistry, but they’re both so smart. Gonna change the world, those two. Betcha Bruce is gonna try to steal Peter when he gets back from his sabbatical.”

Rhodey smiled at Tony just as fondly as his best friend was smiling at his sort of adopted kids.

Tony was happier than Rhodey had seen him, maybe ever, the stress lines around his eyes a little softer, the bags under his eyes lighter, the smile on his face real and unguarded. It was a truly great thing to see.

\---------------------------------

Tony spent the weekend working on the project, making sure it was up to snuff before the boys came over on Monday. He had to bite back a smile when he heard them come down to the lab, harassing each other good-naturedly.

“Hey, something on the table over there for you hooligans, you should check it out.”

The Sciencelings ditched their backpacks and went over to the work table Tony nodded at, looking curiously at the two identical small packages. They looked kind of like folded up ponchos or emergency blankets, and the two boys turned them over in their hands.

“They’re just the prototype models, they probably need some work. But it’s a good starting point, I think.”

Peter’s eyebrows went up. “Are these… Mr. Stark, are these the phone saver things? For drying out electronics?”

“Yep.”

Harley’s face was split in a huge grin. “Oh cool! You fabricated them already?”

“Figured you’d like having a project to work on.”

Harley flipped the pouch over as he examined it and almost dropped it. “Tony!”

He was grinning. “Yes?”

“It says…”

Peter turned his pouch over too, and his jaw dropped. “It… does it really say…”

On the back of the pouches was the Stark Industries logo, but on second glance it was different from the standard logo. Instead of the words “Stark Industries,” it said, “SI Internship Team.”

“I’ve got the patents ready to file under your names. Figured I’d walk you through the process so you know how to do it, since it’s definitely not gonna be the last one.”

Both sets of eyes were wide and disbelieving, mouths open, hands still with surprise.

Tony raised his eyebrows, but he didn’t manage to stop smiling. “You’re gonna catch flies, kids.”

Harley seemed to be trying to find something to say, his mouth working around nonexistent syllables, but Peter just kept staring, unblinking.

“Friday, write it down, I’ve struck them both speechless. This is a day I want to remember. Next year we’ll have cake to celebrate.”

“You got it, boss. The patent paperwork is ready whenever they regain the power of speech.”

Peter was slowly shaking his head, looking at Tony like he had personally put the sun in the sky. “A real live patent?”

“Ah, he speaks. Yes, a real live patent. Once we get the product up to snuff and on the market, proceeds will go into trust accounts I’ve set up for both of you. Call it an early 21st birthday present.”

“Wait, we’re gonna get money?!” Harley’s speechlessness evaporated.

“When you’re older, and have some grown-up experience under your belts, yes.”

Now Harley was looking at him with that starry-eyed expression. “Wow…”

“But what if we need it for college?” Peter asked, looking briefly concerned.

Tony grinned again. “You’re loopy if you don’t already think the Stark Industries Internship Team participation comes with a full-ride scholarship to the college of your choice, up to and including doctorates. Tuition, room and board, supplies, the works.”

There were another few minutes of silent gaping, which Tony quite enjoyed.

Filing the patents was as quick and painless as it could be, Pepper had honed the system down to be as efficient as possible, and about the same time Friday announced that their celebratory milkshakes had arrived courtesy of Happy, the paperwork has been submitted.

“I can’t believe I’m gonna have an actual patent under my name.” Peter was shaking his head, looking slightly stunned.

Harley grinned. “Not bad for a couple high school kids.”

Peter went upstairs to get the milkshakes from Happy, and Harley turned to Tony with a grin.

“Best mechanic ever.”

Tony smiled back and ruffled the kid’s hair. “Flattery will get you everywhere, kid.”

Harley batted his hand away and tried to fix his hair. “Yeah, but it’s not flattery if it’s true.”

Tony didn’t know what to say to that, so he settled for messing up Harley’s hair again. And Peter’s too for good measure, when he got back with his hands full of milkshakes. Their twin squawks of disapproval were definitely worth it.

\---------------------------------

Phase Two of the Phone Savers was going well (Tony had provided a handful of older models of phones for the boys to intentionally damage to test out the pouches), and Peter was bouncing on the balls of his feet as he left the lab a couple hours later to head home.

“Thanks, Mr. Stark! See you tomorrow!”

“Be good, kid. Text me when you get home.”

"Yup!"

Harley was packing up his own stuff, shoving his trigonometry textbook into his backpack and giving it a bounce to settle it on top of the layer of crumpled papers and other crap in the bottom of the bag. “Hey, Tony?”

“Sup, kid?” Tony glanced up from a stack of papers Pepper had brought down earlier for him to sign.

“Why… why do you do stuff, for me and Peter?”

That got the rest of Tony’s attention, and he set down his pen. “What do you mean?”

“Just… all of this.” Harley waved his hand around. “You let us use your lab, you help us with homework, you let us use your equipment to design and fabricate stuff, you give us brand new phones. And I know you’re the anonymous donor that paid the tuition for me to go to the prep school, and that you’d do the same for Peter if he wanted to… You do everything for us.” He looked almost perplexed, watching Tony the same way he did back in Tennessee, just maybe less suspicious.

Tony had a strong urge to ruffle the kid’s hair, just to hear him complain about it. “First of all, if I didn’t let you use my lab, you’d probably rent out some kind of horrible ex-meth lab space downtown or something, I’m doing myself a favor here.”

“And second of all?” Harley had raised an eyebrow, but it was clear he was trying to bite back a smile.

“And second of all, you deserve it, kid. You both do. I am more than happy to do everything I can to make sure you both get every chance to succeed in the ways you want to, and to make sure all the doors are open to the ways you might not know you want yet. Ushering in the next generation of world-changers. That’s my job right now.”

With a grin, Harley zipped up his backpack and slung it over one shoulder, a bit of a pleased flush on his cheeks. “That sounded like a speech.”

Tony sighed and shrugged a little. “It happens. Speech-worthy stuff just falls out of my mouth all the time, I can’t help it.”

“I won’t mention the swear jar. Just to be nice.” Laughter was dancing in Harley’s eyes, and Tony made an offended sound.

“That’s it, I’m kicking you out. Get outta here, you ungrateful, fatherless child, shoo shoo and never come back.”

Harley bopped Tony on the top of the head and laughed as he ducked out the door, taking the stairs two at a time.

Tony watched him go, shaking his head a little bit, chuckling to himself. “Friday, remind that beastly child to text me when he gets home.”

“No need, Boss. Mrs. Stark just requested the same thing. And she says to tell you dinner is five minutes out.”

Turning back to his papers with a smile on his face, Tony picked up his pen again and continued scrawling his signature. “Duly noted.”

**Author's Note:**

> Name of Piece: SI Internship Team  
> Square Filled: A1 - Harley Keener  
> Rating: Gen  
> Warnings: None  
> Summary: Tony's got two good kids spinning great ideas in his lab on a regular basis. It was inevitable that he took their research and efforts a step further.  
> Created For : @tonystarkbingo


End file.
